From the shooting range

[Miletic]

Finally found something my Tikka 223 stainless (LH) likes! 55gr Hornady V-Max seems to be its favorite which is good as I hadn't had much luck elsewhere. Run it suppressed and its a beautiful thing to shoot.

Took it out for some 100/200 situational off the sticks practice (get up and on, find target, load a round, safety, take the shot and repeat, or vary with a follow up) and found that I'm in an acceptable range (~1-2 inch at 100, 2-3.5 inch at 200) still after a few months off, but could use some additional practice sessions before I leave. So poor me, will be off to the range again a couple of times this week.

Excellent. It's a beautiful feeling when you find bullets packing into each other at 100yds!!!

 

[Miletic]

OK two more, a bunch of mule deer walking past a coyote I shot just 100M to the E side of my shooting range. Coyote is laying in front of the small buck.
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And a whitetial buck I passed up last fall while hunting mule deer just 300M behind where my gongs are hanging. I'm fortunate to be able to hunt on my own land and have a place where I can shoot targets whenever I want.

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A really beautiful place to shoot. And for life

 

[Miletic]

 

[meigsbucks]

General question for everyone. How satisfied are you with Garmin Xero? I use Magentospeed V3. Thinking of buying Xero

I went from a Chrony, to MagnetoSpeed, to LanRadar to the Garmin. Garmin is simple, quick and easy. Mine is the 1.0 version. A friend has the Athelon that is very similar and a little less expensive than the Garmin.

 

[CloudySkies]

Can recommend the Athlon Rangecraft - have had mine since they first came out, and have been really happy with it - velocities are as precise as the Garmin and price is more reasonable, particularly if you can get it on a sale.

 

[Miletic]

I'll watch it on YouTube. Thanks

 

[Steve-O]

Sighting in my new Ruger in 9.3x62

 

[CloudySkies]

Hit the range for another practice session with the 223. Was shooting well off the sticks, setting up some nice groupings, only for things to start wandering a foot high and left, had me thrown for a minute but was odd given prior ~2-3 inch groupings at 200 yards (4 shot group). Come to find out - rail came loose again - not the first time its happened to me, so I had the tools on hand, cinched it down and got back on. After that was able to continue shooting.

My current drill is to pick up the rifle off the bench, keeping it safely pointed and downrange, get onto sticks into a shooting position quickly, set myself, off safe, take the shot as close as I can to a quick set. Then a reload, repeat as if a follow up, then back on safe, come off the sticks and repeat for two singles of the quick set. After two groups of 4, move pretty quickly down range to inspect cover the impact points, and back to get the heart rate up, then two groups of 4 before I take a pause to let the suppressor cool down (TI model, so don't want too much heat). Seems to be as close as I can work out for shots in the field, so will be interesting to see in a couple of weeks.

Had a little fun at the end trying to ping the small steel targets at 300 yards off the sticks out of curiosity and free-holding for the 11 inch bullet drop at that range, and manage to ring the steel 2/3 times - not too shabby on a 5 inch plate - the third one missed by a hair.

Feeling fairly confident that I'll be able to work with sticks when I get over there (have work travel beforehand next week) - next plan this week is to take the wife to the range for a shorter ranged practice session to work on her confidence.

 

[Miletic]

Hit the range for another practice session with the 223. Was shooting well off the sticks, setting up some nice groupings, only for things to start wandering a foot high and left, had me thrown for a minute but was odd given prior ~2-3 inch groupings at 200 yards (4 shot group). Come to find out - rail came loose again - not the first time its happened to me, so I had the tools on hand, cinched it down and got back on. After that was able to continue shooting.

My current drill is to pick up the rifle off the bench, keeping it safely pointed and downrange, get onto sticks into a shooting position quickly, set myself, off safe, take the shot as close as I can to a quick set. Then a reload, repeat as if a follow up, then back on safe, come off the sticks and repeat for two singles of the quick set. After two groups of 4, move pretty quickly down range to inspect cover the impact points, and back to get the heart rate up, then two groups of 4 before I take a pause to let the suppressor cool down (TI model, so don't want too much heat). Seems to be as close as I can work out for shots in the field, so will be interesting to see in a couple of weeks.

Had a little fun at the end trying to ping the small steel targets at 300 yards off the sticks out of curiosity and free-holding for the 11 inch bullet drop at that range, and manage to ring the steel 2/3 times - not too shabby on a 5 inch plate - the third one missed by a hair.

Feeling fairly confident that I'll be able to work with sticks when I get over there (have work travel beforehand next week) - next plan this week is to take the wife to the range for a shorter ranged practice session to work on her confidence.

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excellent training